Great service, photo quality, selection, and pricing!
Written: Jul 31 '08
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A wonderful experience all-around
Adorama is one of the two big, Jewish-owned (more on why that matters later), camera stores in New York City. I generally prefer shopping from B&H as they're usually a hair friendlier, but Adorama is great too.
They have a huge array of products at fantastic prices. If you need a camera or accessory, they will almost certainly have it at a very competitive price!
But that's not the main point of this review. The point of this review is about their photo lab and their customer service. Anyone can compare prices - and Adorama is very good.
The Photo Lab
AdoramaPix - Adorama's photo lab - is the majority of my review. They are type of lab I consider "semi-professional" - most of their stuff is printed on Kodak Endura professional photo paper, and their technicians are pretty good (though not the best) at color correction. Still, the prints are made on Noritsu digital minilabs - the same printers that are used in many one hour photo labs.
They offer many choices of paper, and this is their strongest point:
Kodak Royal Glossy
This is the only non-professional paper they offer. Thus, it is their cheapest printing option. It is thicker than normal Fuji Type II CA or Kodak Edge paper, but it is still consumer grade paper.
Kodak Professional Supra Endura Lustre
This is a professional paper with the standard portrait grain surface. It is the best choice for most people photos and is a medium price.
Kodak Professional Supra Endura Matte
This is the same paper with a smoother semi-matte surface. Great if you're going to print all your photos on one paper - it's a nice texture suitable for the majority of photographs.
Kodak Professional Endura Silk
This is an old-fashioned "silk" texture paper - instead of a random lustre surface, it's a perpendicular grid texture. Best for vintage/sepia photos only. Honestly, it's somewhat ugly and dated except for certain photographs. Again, this is a medium priced paper.
Kodak Professional Endura Metallic
This is my absolute favorite paper! It's the most expensive paper they have. It has a pearlescent shine that makes it look like real metal on the right colors. Fashion photos absolutely POP. This is a truly beautiful paper for any type of photo that needs to pop and shine and look great. Well worth the premium with the right photos, but it's ugly with the wrong photos.
Thoughts on the photo lab
As you can see they offer a wide variety of papers. This selection, combined with quality prints at an excellent price (to give an example 4x6 glossy is 0.15, 4x6 on any of the normal Endura's is 0.19, and 4x6 on Metallic is 0.29).
Print quality is very good, but I generally recommend requesting they don't correct your prints and using their profiles for lustre and metallic paper.
Customer Service
I have had one encounter with their service and it was excellent. I received two poorly aligned 6x9 prints from their lab and they promptly mailed me out new prints. VERY impressive!
Speed/Shipping
Normally, this is very good - a couple days on photo orders, less on equipment orders. Only one problem - they're Jewish. I'm not anti-semite or anything. You just need to be extremely aware of their holiday schedule. Jewish tradition has *many* holidays - including two full weeks a year, that will slow down your shipping time. A lot. Be very aware of their times and schedule and make sure you schedule your orders accordingly.
I think you'll find you're as happy with Adorama as I have been!
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Photo printing, cameras, etc.
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Epinions.com ID:
americanbear
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Member: Mark Uhde
Location: Montana, USA
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
Thanks for reading my reviews! Learn more in my profile or at markuhde.com
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